BENNETT ‘Maker to the Royal Observatory’ 65 Cheapside, London. No 3757 in case
Early Swiss made pin-set keyless watch, in the English taste, circa 1865.
£795.00
Swiss ‘FINE SILVER’ double back engine-turned case, the dome elaborately engraved for its most interesting retailer. Good quality Swiss nickel barred keyless going-barrel movement with visible ‘wolf’s tooth’ winding wheels, jewelled to the 3rd, with cap jewels on balance and escape. Swiss straight-line double-roller detached lever escapement with polished steel club-tooth escape. Compensation balance, balance-spring with overcoil. Swiss signed enamel dial with sunk-seconds, blued-steel hands. 47.5 mm diameter.
Bennett, later Sir John Bennett, a firm ‘Founded in the Reign of George II,’ one of the leading London retailers in the second half of the 19th century, Bennett himself being one of London’s most colourful characters – see his portrait by Spy, done for the magazine Vanity Fair, copies of which are usually available on my website.
NB: John Bennett (1814-1897) was an enthusiastic promoter and strong vocal advocate for Swiss watchmaking, often to the intense annoyance of the London trade, as can be read in the horological journals of the time. He is described in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as being a “flamboyant personality who seems to have aroused in his contemporaries varying degrees of ridicule, hostility, and admiration”
Some minor wear showing on the shoulder of the engine-turning, otherwise a fine and interesting example of the better class of Swiss watchmaking, probably Geneva, that was soon to become a threat to the prominence that London’s watchmakers had enjoyed for best quality work for well over a century by this time. Serviced and guaranteed.
Item available
Description
Swiss ‘FINE SILVER’ double back engine-turned case, the dome elaborately engraved for its most interesting retailer. Good quality Swiss nickel barred keyless going-barrel movement with visible ‘wolf’s tooth’ winding wheels, jewelled to the 3rd, with cap jewels on balance and escape. Swiss straight-line double-roller detached lever escapement with polished steel club-tooth escape. Compensation balance, balance-spring with overcoil. Swiss signed enamel dial with sunk-seconds, blued-steel hands. 47.5 mm diameter.
Bennett, later Sir John Bennett, a firm ‘Founded in the Reign of George II,’ one of the leading London retailers in the second half of the 19th century, Bennett himself being one of London’s most colourful characters – see his portrait by Spy, done for the magazine Vanity Fair, copies of which are usually available on my website.
NB: John Bennett (1814-1897) was an enthusiastic promoter and strong vocal advocate for Swiss watchmaking, often to the intense annoyance of the London trade, as can be read in the horological journals of the time. He is described in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as being a “flamboyant personality who seems to have aroused in his contemporaries varying degrees of ridicule, hostility, and admiration”
Some minor wear showing on the shoulder of the engine-turning, otherwise a fine and interesting example of the better class of Swiss watchmaking, probably Geneva, that was soon to become a threat to the prominence that London’s watchmakers had enjoyed for best quality work for well over a century by this time. Serviced and guaranteed.
